A Love-Hate Relationship

42.1~ Rewriting Our Stars

Monday, February 14th

This was it.

The big day.

School was the worst. All I saw were boyfriends and girlfriends giving each other flowers, cards, and chocolates. There were a bunch of them sticking out of everyone's lockers.

It was depressing. I would've liked at least something. Even the teachers gave each other stuff. Principal Bean gave Ms. Hemsley this beautiful painting in the hallway before lunch, which was literally a picture of them repainted. I'd never seen Ms. Hemsley cry until then.

But no, I was the girl with herpes and an empty locker.

Johnny's locker had a bunch of cards. It was sickening.

I was one of the few that didn't get any, at least not in my hallway. Either the boys that previously liked me were chased away by Jack Sydney and the persisting rumors, or the Valentines I got were stolen by some freshmen or sophomore kids.

The same kids that pranked my locker that time were laughing when I noticed that not one flower or card was in locker. Not even a rose petal. They were looking right at me, and one girl waved a card at me as they left.

They definitely stole them.

It didn't matter, anyway. I didn't want any cards from anyone else but Johnny.

The highlight of my day was Johnny still being absent. While I was still sad— I thought maybe he'd reach out to me or I could reach out to him today— seeing Clara all disappointed was priceless.

Though she was quickly cheered up by the mountain of flowers and Valentines she got. It was sickening. She still liked Johnny, and yet she flirted with God-knows-who-else.

I still wasn't sure if their relationship was real, but I wondered how she and Johnny would've interacted had he come today.

At least I saw my friends happy. Emmary and Felicia were getting more serious about Kobe and Bruce. They were cool guys. Even though they were Johnny's friends, what happened between me and him had nothing to do with them.

I'd never been so eager to leave school. I'd escaped the student body as if I were swimming in a sea of red and pink. I'd worn red and pink to blend in and not be singled out even more, but I still felt isolated.

Now I was finally in my world. I'd gone to rehearse around 3pm, and now it was time.

It was 7:45. We would be performing in fifteen minutes. Eight sharp, like Mrs. Samuel kept hammering into our heads.

I was wearing the pink outfit Mom gave me for Christmas. Like the other girls, my hair was tied into an elaborate bun with braids running along the sides of my head. I had a beautiful array of tiny roses of red, pink, and white aligning the hair tie used for my bun. My makeup was simple, but very pretty.

I finished my stretches and went to put on my figure skates. We were in the Bayfield Figure Skating Rink, which was where Ringing Talent always performed. It was like those rinks used in the Olympics figure skating, but smaller. It was only used for official performances like ours.

We were the opening dance. Afterwards, some other groups in the academy were performing other dances that were more spectacular, but those were for professionals and Ringing Talent graduates that were now visiting from universities.

I peeked out of the locker room we were in, which contained all our equipment like skates, glitter, streamers, and other objects dancers used in their performances to give them flair.

There were hundreds of people crowding in the seats. The rink was outdoors, so it was a bit chilly. The starry night sky and snowy outlines of the rink made it look more romantic for today. I could see my family settling into their seats in the top right part of the seats.